1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of knowledge management and more particularly to techniques for capturing and managing the knowledge of employees and other people.
2. Description of the Related Art
Knowledge management systems are systems that collect and manage the knowledge of a group of people, such as the employees of an organization. Knowledge management systems are often implemented using software and computing devices. For example, conventional knowledge management tools and systems include wikis, blogs, filing systems, and document management systems.
Knowledge management systems are critical to maintaining the knowledge of an organization while its employees change over time. An effective knowledge management system will retain and organize the knowledge of an organization so that as existing employees leave the organization and new employees join the organization, the new employees will be able to locate and use the knowledge of the organization and that knowledge will not be lost with the departure of existing employees.
Conventional knowledge management tools and systems are limited in that they can be characterized as passive. In other words, conventional knowledge management tools and systems are dependent on users making a concerted effort to enter information properly so that later users can find relevant information. Users often use conventional knowledge management tools and systems inconsistently so that the organization's knowledge is not captured adequately and is not organized in a manner that makes the information easily accessible in the future.